After 6 hard years, Janusz and Silvanna are reunited in their new home, England with their son, Aurek. They are refugees from Poland after WWII and cannot go back to their homeland. Both trying to cope with secrets of the war, they are finally trying to live as a family again. However, the demons that live inside them, and Jan's want to have the perfect English family and the perfect English son, drives them apart and makes it hard for Silvanna to cope with her new surroundings.

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was one that I would recommend to anyone that really enjoys this time period. I didn't see her secret coming really. The author just kind of zoomed right over it in the flashbacks, but when she went back over it, its kind of obvious and made you think of how a child would have survived an explosion like that.( )

When Janusz (husband) becomes a soldier he left a young wife (Silvana) and infant son (Aurek)

Silvana and Aurek escape the German invasion of Warsaw into the forest and endure years of privation and abuse at the hands of their protectors."Janusz, the sole survivor of his slaughtered military unit, flees to France and immerses himself in a love affair.

At the end of WWII, Silvana and 8yr old Aurek journey from Poland to 22 Britannia Road,Ipswich for a reunion and to re establish as a family.

Housewife or homemaker? a soldier questions her as she and Aurek board the ship to England.Her answer is survivor and this is the basis of a life of primal maternal love for a wild almost feral child.

Secrets unfold, hardships endured and a damaged family attempts to reunite andaccept one another....a tale of survival and redemption.

The plot deals with the reuniting of a Polish family after WWII in England that had been separated for 6 years. Both parents must become familar with one another as well as learning to coparent thier only son. Throughout their journey the also uncover secrets about how their time apart was spent. Very interesting read. ( )

The plot deals with the reuniting of a Polish family after WWII in England that had been separated for 6 years. Both parents must become familar with one another as well as learning to coparent thier only son. Throughout their journey the also uncover secrets about how their time apart was spent. Very interesting read. ( )

Successfully weaving three narrative strands and three different viewpoints is a challenge to any novelist, let alone a tyro, but it's one that Amanda Hodgkinson meets with accomplishment. She intersperses the wartime past with the present in a series of tense, sharply observed scenes: the couple's first meeting, in 1937; the blissful early days of their marriage in Warsaw; the birth of their beloved child....Although the English neighbours are a little stereotypical, the strength of this novel lies in its characters. The Nowaks are tenderly and imaginatively evoked, and the glamorous Italian black marketeer whose young son befriends Aurek is a magnificent creation. Silvana is utterly individual; one doesn't sympathise with some of her prickly or naive reactions, but one is forced to understand them and to long for her happiness. The ending does not disappoint.

Wikipedia in English (1)

In her powerful debut, Hodgkinson takes on the tale of a family desperately trying to put itself back together after WWII. Silvana and Janusz have only been married a few months when the war forces them apart. Silvana and their infant son, Aurek, leave Poland and disappear into the forests of Eastern Europe, where they bear witness to German atrocities. Meanwhile Janusz, the sole survivor of his slaughtered military unit, flees to France. There, he takes up with a local girl and, though he loves her, awaits the war's end so that he can go in search of his wife and son. He eventually finds them in a refugee camp and they travel to England together, where they attempt to put the past behind them. But the secrets they carry pull at the threads of their fragile peace. Hodgkinson alternates viewpoints to relay the story of three desperate characters, skillfully toggling between the war and its aftermath with wonderfully descriptive prose that pulls the reader into a sweeping tale of survival and redemption.

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In this tale of a Polish family desperately trying to put itself back together after WWII, Silvana and Janusz travel to England where they attempt to put the past behind them. But the secrets they carry pull at the threads of their fragile peace.